Couple charged in airport baggage thefts

FORT LAUDERDALE — He posed as a well-dressed traveler but pilfered the luggage of others at South Florida airports; she was his getaway driver, police say.

Sean Maxwell, 44, and his wife Lorina Flint, 42, are accused of working together to brazenly steal luggage from baggage carousels, according to reports.

The couple are charged in at least five similar — but separate — thefts at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and at Miami International Airport since early March.

In each of the cases, investigators said cameras captured what they described as a "well-dressed man" blending in with passengers in the baggage area and then walking away with luggage he hoisted onto a push cart, according to arrest reports.

Early Sunday morning, a United Airlines employee noticed a man who matched the description from a surveillance video taking a bag from the baggage area at the Broward airport, according to the reports.

A Broward Sheriff's deputy stopped the man as he was trying to hop into a Jeep Grand Cherokee. In his report, the deputy noted that Maxwell "was sweating profusely" and appeared nervous.

Flint told the deputy she was there to pick up her husband, but then said she was there to pick up her husband's friend. Miami-Dade records show the two were married in 1999.

The couple refused to speak to investigators. On Monday, they separately appeared at a Broward bond court hearing. Flint told Broward Court Judge John "Jay" Hurley that the couple lives with eight children and couldn't afford a lawyer or to post bond.

The long list of charges includes grand theft and organized scheme to defraud. Flint and Maxwell were each being held without bail on out-of-county warrants unrelated to the baggage theft charges.